Self-made businessman back to compete
Brandon Muri
Issue date: 4/3/08 Section: News
The commanding figure of 60-year-old Don Tocco stands out among the tired faces of students as he strides confidently through early morning rays in the Knorr Dining Room at 8 a.m.
For the past six years, Tocco has challenged Hillsdale College athletes to a spring sports challenge, testing whether this student, or any, is worth Tocco's respect - $25,000 worth.
The idea for the Tocco challenge originated six years ago in President Larry Arnn's office.
Arrn said that while Tocco was recounting a recent sports challenge at a high school, where he managed to clinch the victory, Arnn had the notion to put his friend up to a little challenge. Tocco - not one to back down - accepted the challenge with effusion.
"I had to give him a hard time," Arnn said, "I said, 'Now Don, this is college, you know, do you really think you have a chance?'"
In the years following the meeting, Tocco has proved himself a worth adversary, losing only twice in the past five competitions.
"The Lost Years"
On this particular morning, Tocco is in Hillsdale catching up with friends and finalizing plans for the sixth annual "Tocco Challenge," held tomorrow at 5 p.m. in the Roche Sports Complex.
After finishing a simple breakfast, Tocco, the accomplished poet, sculptor, musician and businessman settles into a booth gripping a cup of Saga, Inc., coffee in both hands and begins to relate his story.
He recalls a particular evening in the fall of 1970 as a 23-year-old:
"I was walking up to my parent's house after work one night. I felt lost, trapped. I stopped, and looked up at the sky and said: "Lord, I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing."
Tocco had earned money as a truck driver and semi-skilled laborer since he was 19, and before too long, began to feel something was missing.
In an exclusive interview with talk radio host Jack Kraskula, Tocco related his feelings of dissatisfaction during this period:
"One day [in the shop] as I smelled the sulfur from the solder guns, I thought to myself, 'There's got to be more to life than this,'"
Sitting in a cafe booth almost four decades later, in a tailored suit with more than $2 billion in sales under his belt, Tocco has found his calling, but the road was not easy, he said.
While managing his marketing company, Tocco said he often refers back to those early years, "the lost years," he calls them.
"It was a period that lasted about seven years. I was not focused, I had no direction. I was aimless, but not despondent," Tocco said."
One fall evening in 1970, Tocco prayed to God, "If you help me help myself, I will do everything I can to help others."
Soon after, Tocco said people - and not just his mother - started giving him books on success and positive thinking.
"These books shot me out of my stupor," Tocco said, "and helped prepare me for future success."
In a brochure for his Youth Enrichment Series, Tocco includes a list of 14 books which he said changed the course of his life.
The most important of these is, "How to Make Friends and Influence People." After reading the book, Tocco became so enamored of author Dale Carnegie's concepts that he became an instructor at the Carnegie Institute for nine years.
Looking back on those skinny years, Tocco said books answered prayer.
An answer
The big answer Tocco was praying for arrived four years later in March, 1974, as Tocco drove through pelting rain on a grimy Detroit night.
As he watched the murky buildings floating past, Tocco said he noted the smoking roofs and grinding machinery of the industrial area below the highway for the first time, an area called "the rouge complex," and was struck with an idea.
"I said to myself, 'There's money down there," Tocco said.
Tocco's breakthrough idea, as it came to be, was to unite the city's private subcontractors - concrete workers, roofers, plumbers, etc. - and place bids to clients as the representative of the entire construction team. allowing the client to deal with one competent figurehead as opposed to representatives of many construction outfits.
The idea did not come to fruition immediately, however.
"I was a young kid with no business experience and no money. It was difficult to find people who would give me the time of day."
Tocco said it was the books that gave him the skills and confidence to win people to his idea.
After three years of passionate convincing and artful sweet talking, Tocco's little idea became actualized in the creation of a small, Detroit business, Tocco and Associates, a healthy little addition to the growing needs of an expanding Detroit.
Within the next five years, Tocco's little project had progressed from grossing a healthy million a year to 100 million. Tocco's pet had become a monster.
In the years since, Tocco has lived up to his end of the bargain.
He founded the YES program in 1988, an educational system developed to help elementary kids learn positive thinking and motivational principles.
According to Tocco's Web site, he has spoken at leadership conferences in every state in the U.S. and his speeches have been heard in over 40 countries.
Arnn said he considers Tocco more than simply a "donor" or a "picture of success," he counts Tocco as a friend.
"Don is a generous hearted man who discovered that the need for living well is fundamental to being successful," Arnn said. "He loves to talk about that and loves to spread that message to young people."
For the past six years, Tocco has challenged Hillsdale College athletes to a spring sports challenge, testing whether this student, or any, is worth Tocco's respect - $25,000 worth.
The idea for the Tocco challenge originated six years ago in President Larry Arnn's office.
Arrn said that while Tocco was recounting a recent sports challenge at a high school, where he managed to clinch the victory, Arnn had the notion to put his friend up to a little challenge. Tocco - not one to back down - accepted the challenge with effusion.
"I had to give him a hard time," Arnn said, "I said, 'Now Don, this is college, you know, do you really think you have a chance?'"
In the years following the meeting, Tocco has proved himself a worth adversary, losing only twice in the past five competitions.
"The Lost Years"
On this particular morning, Tocco is in Hillsdale catching up with friends and finalizing plans for the sixth annual "Tocco Challenge," held tomorrow at 5 p.m. in the Roche Sports Complex.
After finishing a simple breakfast, Tocco, the accomplished poet, sculptor, musician and businessman settles into a booth gripping a cup of Saga, Inc., coffee in both hands and begins to relate his story.
He recalls a particular evening in the fall of 1970 as a 23-year-old:
"I was walking up to my parent's house after work one night. I felt lost, trapped. I stopped, and looked up at the sky and said: "Lord, I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing."
Tocco had earned money as a truck driver and semi-skilled laborer since he was 19, and before too long, began to feel something was missing.
In an exclusive interview with talk radio host Jack Kraskula, Tocco related his feelings of dissatisfaction during this period:
"One day [in the shop] as I smelled the sulfur from the solder guns, I thought to myself, 'There's got to be more to life than this,'"
Sitting in a cafe booth almost four decades later, in a tailored suit with more than $2 billion in sales under his belt, Tocco has found his calling, but the road was not easy, he said.
While managing his marketing company, Tocco said he often refers back to those early years, "the lost years," he calls them.
"It was a period that lasted about seven years. I was not focused, I had no direction. I was aimless, but not despondent," Tocco said."
One fall evening in 1970, Tocco prayed to God, "If you help me help myself, I will do everything I can to help others."
Soon after, Tocco said people - and not just his mother - started giving him books on success and positive thinking.
"These books shot me out of my stupor," Tocco said, "and helped prepare me for future success."
In a brochure for his Youth Enrichment Series, Tocco includes a list of 14 books which he said changed the course of his life.
The most important of these is, "How to Make Friends and Influence People." After reading the book, Tocco became so enamored of author Dale Carnegie's concepts that he became an instructor at the Carnegie Institute for nine years.
Looking back on those skinny years, Tocco said books answered prayer.
An answer
The big answer Tocco was praying for arrived four years later in March, 1974, as Tocco drove through pelting rain on a grimy Detroit night.
As he watched the murky buildings floating past, Tocco said he noted the smoking roofs and grinding machinery of the industrial area below the highway for the first time, an area called "the rouge complex," and was struck with an idea.
"I said to myself, 'There's money down there," Tocco said.
Tocco's breakthrough idea, as it came to be, was to unite the city's private subcontractors - concrete workers, roofers, plumbers, etc. - and place bids to clients as the representative of the entire construction team. allowing the client to deal with one competent figurehead as opposed to representatives of many construction outfits.
The idea did not come to fruition immediately, however.
"I was a young kid with no business experience and no money. It was difficult to find people who would give me the time of day."
Tocco said it was the books that gave him the skills and confidence to win people to his idea.
After three years of passionate convincing and artful sweet talking, Tocco's little idea became actualized in the creation of a small, Detroit business, Tocco and Associates, a healthy little addition to the growing needs of an expanding Detroit.
Within the next five years, Tocco's little project had progressed from grossing a healthy million a year to 100 million. Tocco's pet had become a monster.
In the years since, Tocco has lived up to his end of the bargain.
He founded the YES program in 1988, an educational system developed to help elementary kids learn positive thinking and motivational principles.
According to Tocco's Web site, he has spoken at leadership conferences in every state in the U.S. and his speeches have been heard in over 40 countries.
Arnn said he considers Tocco more than simply a "donor" or a "picture of success," he counts Tocco as a friend.
"Don is a generous hearted man who discovered that the need for living well is fundamental to being successful," Arnn said. "He loves to talk about that and loves to spread that message to young people."
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Casino Online Gambling
posted 11/08/08 @ 6:31 AM EST
This is know as the determination to lead a life on own terms, no matter what the age is or how many obstacles comes in your ways.
keep rocking :)
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